Page 36 of Choosing You

The guy she’s referring to is Blake, who I don’t find even the tiniest bit hot, but at least he cleaned himself up for orientation. His hair isn’t a shaggy mess and he’s got on light-colored shorts, a navy polo shirt, and preppy canvas loafers instead of his usual board shorts and flip-flops.

“That guy’s a total jerk. Don’t even think about dating him.”

“Why? How do you know him?”

“He’s Garret’s friend. He lives off campus, but he was hanging out here last night and he was so drunk we had to drive him home.”

“But you like Garret, so how bad could his friend be?” She continues to stare back at Blake.

“I don’t know why they’re friends but I’m telling you, Harper. Just stay away from the guy.”

Almost an hour later we’re finally at the front of the line where four women are seated behind tables with signs listing different letters of the alphabet. I go to the “S-Z” section for Taylor and Harper goes to the “A-F” section for Douglas.

A woman takes my name, crosses it off a sheet on her clipboard, and hands me a large binder that has the school logo emblazoned on the front.

“This is for your computer.” She hands me a bright green piece of paper that has my name and student ID number on it. “Take it to the bookstore any time after 1 today.”

The college provides laptop computers to incoming freshman, which is good considering I have no money to buy one.

As I turn to walk away, the woman calls after me. “One more thing. It looks like this is for you.” She holds out a red square envelope. “Jade, right? You’re the Kensington Scholarship recipient?”

“Um, yeah,” I say, taking it from her.

I meet up with Harper. “What’s that?” she asks, eyeing the envelope. “I didn’t get one of those. Was I supposed to?”

“I don’t think so. Let’s get out of here. It’s too hot and stuffy.”

When we get outside we see students gathered in large groups in the open quad. “Did you see that you’re in my orientation group? We’re supposed to meet over there.” Harper points to a group of students standing in front of the science building.

When we get to our meeting spot, her phone rings. She answers it while I open the mysterious envelope. There’s a note inside.Jade, We’re looking forward to meeting you at dinner tonight. A car will arrive at 6:30 to bring you to our estate. You can expect to return around 10. Sincerely, Mr. and Mrs. Kensington.

Crap! I completely forgot about this dinner. Back when I accepted the scholarship, I received an invitation but that was so long ago. It hadn’t even crossed my mind since then. What am I supposed to wear? I’m sure jeans and a t-shirt aren’t appropriate. I do have one black sleeveless dress and some black shoes with a slight heel. I wore the dress to graduation, so it has to be good enough for dinner.

Harper’s still on the phone. Our orientation leader is shaking hands and getting our names. In the open quad ahead of us, I see another large group of students. Garret is in the group, standing off to the side with a couple guys. I decide to walk over and say hi. When I’m almost there, his phone rings and the other guys walk away as he answers it. I know I shouldn’t, but I listen in wondering if it’s Blake calling. I’m sure he saw me in line. He’s probably asking Garret if he knows anything about the cute blond girl I was with. If Harper ends up dating Blake, I’ll have to reassess our friendship.

“I told you I’m busy,” I hear Garret say. “I don’t have time.” He listens. “I don’t need to—” He turns toward me and I duck behind a tree to hide. “It’s one time. Let me out of this and I promise I’ll—” He stops again to listen. “Yes. Fine.”

I peek from behind the tree to see him sitting on a nearby bench, the phone clutched tightly in his hand. He’s bent over with his forearms on his knees staring at the ground.

“Hey.” I take a seat next to him on the bench. “How’s it going?”

He pops upright and smiles, but it’s not his usual smile. It seems forced. “Hi, Jade. Did you get your orientation packet yet?”

I hold up the giant binder, which he had to have noticed. “Yep. Got it right here. So do you wanna have lunch later?”

He has this strange look on his face like he’s about to break up with me even though we’re not even dating. “I can’t. I’m busy.”

“Oh. Okay. Well, we could go on a run this afternoon. I’ll even go slow.” I smile, hoping to wipe the serious look off his face.

He gets up. “I’m sorry. I can’t. Maybe some other day. I have to go. My group is leaving.”

I look back at my own group which is now walking away.

“Bye, Garret,” I say, but he’s already gone.

I don’t understand any part of what just happened. Yesterday he wanted to be best friends and now he wants nothing to do with me. Was it because of Blake? Did he say something to make Garret reconsider our friendship? Or did Garret already find some other girl to hang out with? After my outburst in the pool, it wouldn’t surprise me if he did.

As I join up with my group, I tell myself that I don’t care if he found someone else. But I do care because over the past few days I’ve come to really like Garret. He’s one of the few people I actually don’t mind being around. I even look forward to seeing him, which is especially strange given that I’ve never looked forward to seeing anyone, other than Ryan and Frank who don’t really count.

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